Discuss - Ep #0461

[Watching Project]

Robservations #461

[Lydia]

Ooh, I loved Julia in this episode.  It's so good to see her again!  Making fun of Barnabas, telling him to GET OUT of Vicky's room, lying to Elizabeth - it was wonderful.
 
Present-day Barnabas seems taller and skinnier than 1795 Barnabas.  I'm sure that the clothes have a lot to do with it, but the manner also makes a difference.  When we last saw Barnabas in 1795, he was deferring to Joshua, whereas present-day Barnabas is a control freak.
 
Wasn't the setup of the séance different back in the beginning from what it was today?  I didn't think Phyllis had her back to the drawing room doors.  I thought she was sort of facing the piano.
 
The voiceover clearly said that months had passed at present-day Collinwood.  What did the non-séance-attenders think was going on?  I imagined a thorny hedge growing up around Collinwood, like in Sleeping Beauty, but Mrs. Johnson and David would be inside that hedge, so it would have had to be around the drawing room.  I'm imagining a tender mother-son relationship growing up between Mrs. Johnson and David in the past few months...Mrs. Johnson starting to call David "Harry" by mistake...David telling Mrs. Johnson she would look good as a blond...

[EmeraldRose]

The voiceover clearly said that months had passed at present-day Collinwood. 

Unfortunately, I think you got that wrong, Lydia. The voiceover clearly said that in one moment in present-day Collinwood, several months had passed in 1795 Collinwood. Time had stood still in present-day Collinwood while Vicki had spent several months in 1795. This reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation  - "The Inner Light" - when Captain Picard spent over 30 years on an extinct planet over a thousand years ago - in about 25 present-time minutes, as he was rendered unconscious by a probe. That was the one when Picard learned how to play that flute-like instrument. It is one of my favorite episodes of ST: TNG. This episode of DS is one of my favorites, as well. The only thing I don't get about this episode is:  How could the present time have stood still, but we (the audience) saw several months pass, and it really was 1968, and not 1967? I guess that's another one of the many inconsistencies of DS. 

It's great to see the (now) 1968 characters again! It took a few moments to remember how it was before the seance. I'm glad that Julia finally told everyone that she was a doctor, and she was still trying to boss Barnabas around! Barnabas is now frantic to find out just what Vicki knows about him! He's wondering, "Does she know my secret?"

Fantastic acting all around. Everyone seemed thinner in the modern clothing.

----- Sally -----

[Lydia]

Yup, you're absolutely right, Sally, and I was absolutely wrong.   Maybe it was A Wrinkle In Time?

[EmeraldRose]

Maybe so, Lydia!  A Wrinkle in Time sounds good. I just love those time-travel stories; they boggle the mind sometimes! 

----- Sally -----

[michael c]

i am quite perceptive to subtle changes in the tone of the show and i recall that in this episode they introduce a new musical cue.

i think it's during the extended voiceover when carolyn is talking about how "two moments in time are one and suddenly the great clock starts again..." while they pan in the foyer clock.

it's more deliberately creepy and ominous than the cues they used before the storyline shifted in time.
i didn't know what to make of it at the time but it ended up signaling the overall change in tone and direction the show takes in 1968 when it becomes much more focused on the supernatural characters.

[Midnite]

Wasn't the setup of the séance different back in the beginning from what it was today?  I didn't think Phyllis had her back to the drawing room doors.  I thought she was sort of facing the piano.

I guess you can't blame Margo Head for not knowing where she was supposed to be sitting since it was Dorrie Kavanaugh that played Phyllis in 1967. 

[Joeytrom]

They even referred to the storyline change when Vicky tells Barnabas that he was wrong when he told her Josette came to marry Jeremiah, but that she came to marry him!

[MagnusTrask]

The naivete that 60s writers had about time travel ideas showed here.... or else it was naive mainstream viewers they were writing for, not wanting them to get confused.   There was never the slightest need to claim that
Collinwood was somehow frozen in time during the time we saw events from 1795.   That makes it sound as if 1795 was somehow happening "concurrently" with 1967, when it wasn't.  It was 170 years earlier.    The point of view of the viewer shifts back 170 years, along with Victoria Winters,  then we experience those events, then DS shifts our point of view (and VW) back forward to 1967, or rather 1968 (a glitch we can't resolve).    If months had passed in the "present", then as Lydia said, the rest of the world would start to notice the rich freaks playing at being statues... the paper boy would want to be paid and would look through the window, maybe..... and would come in and pants Roger....

We (as observers) and VW traveled back in time, then traveled forward again to the same point in time in the present (not months later).    Collinwood wasn't frozen.... it didn't need to be, to explain this.     It's just that viewers accustomed to "sensible", straightforward, linear stories would ask... "But what's going on at Collinwood 1967 while all this is happening in 1795?"  Answer: nothing of course.    Two eras aren't happening at the same time... it's only DS and its wacky storytelling methods that makes it appear that way, if you're not paying attention.     


This was such a strange moment.   I was really looking forward to it.    Stay tuned for DS to catch up with 1968 fast... Julia goes and gets her hair cut, thankfully, meaning the wig gets burnt...

[Maggie Babe]

I remember when this episode first aired in the sixties. I was so mad at my mom because she said she could not pick me up from school because she had a dentist appointment! I ran as fast as I could and missed the first few minutes. I tuned in just as they took the mask off of Phylis Wick. Geez was I bitter about missing those first few moments. Little did I know that I would get to watch that episode 40 years later. ( Ironically one of my daughters is getting into DS with me ...and she is about the same age I was.. I am an older mamma.)

I remeber being a little confused about who was who since I started watching during 1795.

I loved the silent terror of Barnabus as he realized that in fact Vicky was there.

[Midnite]

The naivete that 60s writers had about time travel ideas showed here.... or else it was naive mainstream viewers they were writing for, not wanting them to get confused.   There was never the slightest need to claim that Collinwood was somehow frozen in time during the time we saw events from 1795.   That makes it sound as if 1795 was somehow happening "concurrently" with 1967, when it wasn't.  It was 170 years earlier.    The point of view of the viewer shifts back 170 years, along with Victoria Winters,  then we experience those events, then DS shifts our point of view (and VW) back forward to 1967, or rather 1968 (a glitch we can't resolve).    If months had passed in the "present", then as Lydia said, the rest of the world would start to notice the rich freaks playing at being statues... the paper boy would want to be paid and would look through the window, maybe..... and would come in and pants Roger....

We (as observers) and VW traveled back in time, then traveled forward again to the same point in time in the present (not months later).    Collinwood wasn't frozen.... it didn't need to be, to explain this.     It's just that viewers accustomed to "sensible", straightforward, linear stories would ask... "But what's going on at Collinwood 1967 while all this is happening in 1795?"  Answer: nothing of course.    Two eras aren't happening at the same time... it's only DS and its wacky storytelling methods that makes it appear that way, if you're not paying attention.

I agree that it makes no sense whatsoever to tell us that events in 1795 and 1968 were happening concurrently, but I wonder i the writers didn't intentionally sacrifice logic for the sake of setting up the sappy, drippy scene a couple of episodes later in which Spoiler:

Vicki finds Peter's gravestone and learns that he died not only on the same date but at the same time of day (cue:  Bum Bum BUM!).

But I've never been a fan of the Vicki/Peter/"I'll find you" story, so I could've done without both it and the setup.

[IluvBarnabas]

Great episode....though I have to admit when I saw this the first time, I suspected that was how Vicki was going to get back to the present...through the gallows.

I too liked how Julia took charge. I also liked how she no longer fears Barnabas, heck she even puts him in his place by mentioning what Vicki might be telling to Mrs. Stoddard in private. So much better than her pleading with him to stop terrorizing her before they had the seance.

Once again, Barnabas is rash to believe the worse....that Vicki knows all about him, just like he thought David knew about him from Sarah. Though in this case I do think he had more cause to be worried, because at this point he has no way of knowing what Vicki did or didn't learn in 1795. I'm not surprised he snuck into her room to try and find out though.

[MagnusTrask]

When you're always in danger, you have to prepare for the worst-case scenario, just in case.  I know.

[Sunny_Collins]

I very much enjoyed the voice-over. I found it to be very suspenseful, and the music that went along with it only added to the tension.

I love how in 1968 when Vicki is replaced by phyllis wick, everyone is talking all at once in confusion as if they don't quite know how to handle the situation.